Michael Marquet. Photo: RNZ / Georgie Hanafin By Georgie Hanafin You would be forgiven for thinking a team of gardeners is responsible for the vast bouquets of beauty and life that greet visitors as they enter Christchurch Hospital's grounds, but the plants - all of them - are tended by just one extraordinary man. When he dropped out of school at 15, Michael Marquet could not read, nor could he write.
But a passion for gardening has turned the now 60-year-old into an award-winning author of four books and taken him around the world. For the past two-and-a-half years, Marquet has been solely responsible for the plots dotted around the more than eight hectares of Christchurch Hospital's campus grounds as well as several smaller Te Whatu Ora Waitaha sites in the central city. Where there was soil, there are now plants lovingly tended to by Marquet.
His planter boxes were filled with colourful impatiens - native to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands - behind them, Chinese star jasmine climbed a wire trellis, while the garden beds were packed with perennial shrubs and plants to withstand the depths of Christchurch's winter. Some hardy plants produce pretty flowers throughout autumn and winter, while others sat green until bursts of colour reappeared in spring. "To plant a new garden is to believe in tomorrow," he said.
"Gardening is one of the best therapies for the soul and the heart. I'm making the place beautiful. What I'm doing is healing for me and it's healing for othe.
